Oh, the irony of it

A leading Connecticut news story these days is federal authorities’ investigation of the state Democratic Party‘s efforts to provide support to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy‘s 2014 re-election bid. Specifically, the feds are examining the process by which Democrats used money from their account for federal races on Gov. Malloy. Infamously, the federal account contained many contributions from executives at companies that have state contracts, or are eligible to bid on them, who are prohibited by state law from donating to candidates for state offices and party accounts for state races.

With that in mind, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by a piece that has graced the CT Capitol Report site in recent days. In a “Flashback” moment, Capitol Report publisher Tom Dudchik linked to an October 2014 Weekly Standard magazine article, which detailed Connecticut Democrats’ worries about Gov. Malloy’s prospects in his battle with Republican challenger Tom Foley. Featured was a fundraising solicitation from Meghan Meehan-Draper, then the state Democratic Party’s finance director. Ms. Meehan-Draper asserted contributions were necessary to “stop the Republicans from buying this election.” Read about it all here.

Needless to say, it is quite ironic that a party now under investigation for possible money crimes – remember, Gov. Malloy’s claim to the contrary notwithstanding, this is a criminal probe – accused others of trying to buy an election. Indeed, the hypocrisy makes this affair all the more sickening. It certainly will be interesting to see how the investigation progresses.